The present invention relates to information retrieval systems, and more particularly to a system for storing and selectively retrieving planar film records, wherein the film records may be accessed without reference to any data contained on the microfiche.
Microfiche storage and retrieval systems have been developed in response to the growing need for information storage systems which are compact, and yet provide rapid and efficient access to large volumes of information. In order to provide rapid access of the information contained on the microfiche, some means must be provided for automatically identifying a particular microfiche, without having to actually view the information contained thereon. In the past, various systems have been employed which met this requirement by including unique identification coding along one edge of each of the microfiche. This was implemented by either providing notches along that edge of the microfiche or else by providing a magnetic strip containing the code in a magnetic pattern recorded thereon. The particular microfiche could thus be identified through reference to this coded data.